On January 2nd, 1988, a giant oil storage tank owned by the Ashland Oil Co. split apart at the company’s Floreffe, PA complex south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. While inexpensive, river transport was continually threatened with the imposition of federal tolls that would largely negate its economy. To further enhance efficiency and increase profitability, Ashland Inc. and Marathon Oil Co. announced in May 1997 a plan to merge their refining and marketing operations, with Marathon holding 62 percent of ownership and Ashland 38 percent. On the evening of January 2nd, 1988, the big tank split apart vertically at the company’s storage yard in Floreffe, Pennsylvania, located about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. Joan M. Schoenling Investor Relations Phone: +1 859 815 3052 In the meantime, Ashland sales skyrocketed along with the price of oil. The smell of diesel fuel could be detected as far north as Pittsburgh. Water conservation measures were put in place to conserve supplies; classes in some Pittsburgh schools were suspended, for example, to help conserve water. Following the Ashland oil tank disaster, Pennsylvania lawmakers adopted the Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act of 1989. Reviews (901) 775-9064 Website. Sale of most of its oil leases, equipment, and reserves netted Ashland about $1.5 billion by 1980, but it also left the company wholly dependent upon outside sources of crude, primarily in the Middle East. One small structure also in the path of the spill, was swept away.On the first night following the spill, some 242 families – about 1,200 people – were evacuated from their homes in Jefferson and Elrama in Washington County near the Ashland facility. The Covington, Kentucky-based company is now a Fortune 250 company with sales in more than 140 countries. Ashland faced $32.5 million in assorted fines and settlements, including: $14 million for damages, expenses, and civil penalties (including $4.6 million in costs and civil penalties to the state of Pennsylvania); $11 million for cleanup; $5.25 million in attorneys’ fees; and $2.25 million for a Federal criminal fine for negligence in the spill. So skilled an operator was Blazer that Ashland continued to turn a profit in the worst Depression years. Lt. Gov. The steel shell of the tank itself was left “twisted and contorted” on the ground, as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) would later report. The spill’s pollution of the Monongahela and Ohio rivers created an acute public safety emergency. Valvoline continued to develop new products, including MaxLife motor oil, the first oil specifically formulated for higher mileage engines, and MaxLife transmission fluids and antifreeze. Crude oil, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other petroleum and/or petrochemical mixtures, were often found below ground, in varying thicknesses, floating on top of groundwater, or leaking into nearby creeks and streams.This article is one in an occasional series of stories at this website that feature the ongoing environmental and societal impacts of industrial spills, toxic releases, fires, air & water pollution incidents and other such occurrences.
The tank released its entire contents of 3.85 million gallons of diesel fuel, flooding the complex and polluting the Monongahela River. Aboveground tank failures such as the Ashland disaster are rare. From the remote mountain towns of West Virginia to the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio, the postwar economy moved on wheels powered by oil, and Ashland remained the region's most economical supplier of that oil.

The following years saw an inevitable recession as the war machine was dismantled, but it soon became apparent that postwar America was about to indulge its love affair with the automobile as never before.

For 34 years the Ashland logo represented a gas station sign. Welcome to BenefitConnect, your online resource for the Ashland Hercules Pension Plan. A second nearby tank exhibited brownish stains all the way up its side – some forty feet from ground level – where the escaping fuel had splashed against it. Ashland Global Holdings Inc. Ashland Global Holdings, Inc. is a global specialty chemicals company. During World War II, the petroleum industry came under fairly tight government control. The employees, a former vice-president for oil supply and a former vice-president for government relations, had accused Ashland of firing them in 1983 for refusing to cover up the illegal payments. The Monongahela River flows north-northwest to Pittsburgh, where it joins the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River, then flowing west and southwest into the West Virginia panhandle, Ohio, and beyond. In 1982, more than 20 corporate staff departments were brought together to form Ashland Services Company, a division that would cut overhead and also provide cost-effective services to the corporation and to its divisions and subsidiaries.
Click for book.“Early Days of Oil: A Pictorial History of the Beginnings of the Industry in Pennsylvania,” by Paul H. Giddens, 1st edition, 1948, Princeton University Press. Ashland Oil, Inc. Overview. Menu & Reservations Make Reservations . Ashland brings superior product and service solutions to industries and consumers around the world--in highway construction, chemical and thermoplastic distribution, specialty chemicals, motor oil and car-care products. Local jurisdictions were often left fending for themselves, or at the very least, confused about who to call for help when a large spill or underground leak threatened a school, a water supply, or residential areas.A brief round of Congressional inquiries into ASTs followed the Ashland incident, and a number of bills were introduced, ranging from those designed to prevent catastrophic spills like Ashland’s, to others that would subject ASTs to tougher licensing and inspection procedures.


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